The Book of Illusions

Publisher and industry reviews

UK Kirkus review

David Zimmer, narrator of this novel, is a professor of literature who, after losing his wife and two sons in a plane crash, works through grief by immersing himself in writing a study of a little-known but brilliant silent film comedian, Hector Mann. One morning in 1929 Mann mysteriously disappeared, and no one has managed to discover what happened to him. But Zimmer receives a letter apparently from Mann's wife, inviting him to visit. Could it be that the great man is still alive, as this woman suggests? From this point on the narrative takes unexpected twists and turns in typical Auster fashion. Zimmer finds himself on a ranch in the American desert, his broken heart showing signs of being healed by love for a woman with a large birthmark on one side of her face. More than 120 pages of the book are narrated by her, a tale within a tale that clears up the mystery of Mann's disappearance. These are the novel's most compelling pages. Later there is a curious shot-by-shot account of a lost black-and-white movie, an allegory about the life-restoring power of fiction; and finally a great cataclysm of loss, after which the illusions of the book's title settle on the narrator as he starts to fortify himself with impossible hopes. The book is plainly and fluently written, and deeply moving in its portrait of unbearable grief. It is also enigmatic in its philosophical thinking. A recurrent theme is the question of the 18th-century idealist Bishop Berkeley: does a tree exist when no one is looking at it? Conversely, perhaps, David Zimmer exists because Auster has planted his story within our consciousness; and he falls in love for similar reasons. As narrative, the last section seems oddly vague and unrealized, as though Auster had trouble in finding a way out of the labyrinth he had created, or as if he did not believe in its reality. Readers new to Auster are advised to start elsewhere; fans will be grateful for the many helpings of the old Auster magic, to leaven the final disappointment. (Kirkus UK)